


El Caminante -steampunk bvdn

by theAsh0



Series: au vegebul ideas [9]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Steampunk, BVDN, Vegebul
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 12:09:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,389
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17580563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theAsh0/pseuds/theAsh0
Summary: the great walking city, where all of what is left of human kind resides. the powerful down below, and the poor at the very top.





	El Caminante -steampunk bvdn

 

**Industrial**

El Caminante, The Great Walking City, was one of the world’s great wonders. It’s four feet in perpetual motion, it lumbered across the great desert wastes of Earth. Never stopping, never resting. Save. The safest place anywhere. It always walked, so the people that had built atop and on top again on that city lived save from the things that came from both air and underground for those that stopped to rest. Of course, such safety came at a price. Taxes were high, even for those atop, in the poorest regions, and growing anything on the dust accumulating on rusty metal was hard.

 

**Brass**

Bulma knew this. She also knew that, despite less sun in the lower regions, the hanging wall-gardens of their city were much more lavish and rich then the poor pickings here on top. And, although her first love was mechanics, she needed to eat. Needed to feed her step-brother. He had once been a little tailed foundling that ate too much. But now he was a man, and his appetite had only grown. It was easy to tempt Goku to scout those gardens with her, down below. The promise of more food would do that for him. And there were hardly rules forbidding going down past one’s usual station. But when the pair came eye-to eye with an actual soldier of the city, Bulma realised her mistake.

 

**Locomotive**

Bulma’s father had spent a lot of time working on what he’d called a locomotive. An engine that would be powered by steam, instead of man. It had near exhausted their resources, together with the ever hungry Goku, and the professor had had to retire the idea in the end. Bulma remembered the sputtering the engine usually made before blowing up. And it was the same sound this soldier made at them now, caught somewhere between a salute and an accusatory pointed finger. Not aimed at her by the way, but at her step-brother.

 

**Airship**

“You’re not one of ours.” the man finally verbalized at Goku. And in the quiet that followed, Bulma tried to process what that meant. When the man pointed and screamed, things just got more confusing. “Saiyan!” He screamed. “Wild Saiyan!” which made no sense at all. Because the Saiyans ruled the lower cities. And the very idea of the giant mythical monsters running loose up here, amongst the humans.. Well, there was one thing Bulma _ did _ know. She knew when to  **“run!”**

And so they did, all the way back to their modest house on the upper most regions. And that was the end of that, or so she had thought. Until an actual  _ airship _ showed up.

 

**Goggles**

Three monsters of men jumped down from the hulking, air-chopping, ship that hovered over them, leaving the Briefs family rooted to the ground in fear. The first two men were bigger and broader than any human Bulma had ever seen; one bald, one with spiky hair down to his ankles. The third was smaller, but no less intimidating. All three wore white capes and gold armor, red goggles covered their faces. One of the bigger ones, the hairy one reached out a hand. “Kakarot!” 

“Yes.” the small one in the middle agreed. He crosses his arms and leered down at them despite his small statue. “The resemblance is striking.” All three creatures took a menacing step closer, intent on her step-brother. “Come Kakarot, there is very little time…” 

But then, the unimaginable happened: El Caminante, The Great Walking City,  _ stopped walking _ .

 

**Victorian**

Everything happened at once after that. The ground shook, the small one started barking orders, instructing the bald one to find ‘Bardock’, and the other to get to ‘dispatch’, the airship left, and her parents screamed and panicked with the rest of the city’s people. And Bulma threw her mechanical pole at Goku, who took the hint and used it to shoot himself across town, instantly disappearing. 

All this is how Bulma ended up, only some thirty minutes later, in the lower bowels of a beautiful Victorian throne-room, manhandled by what she soon came to hear was the Prince of Saiyans. Though the city was once again on the move, he was very upset.

 

**Gears**

The “where did Kakarot go?” and her return “How the fuck should I know?” must have bored him by now, because he finally stopped shaking her and threw her at some guards. “Upper level parasite,” one of the guards hissed, holding on elbow. But an angry grunt from the prince silenced him. “No, let’s start again. I don't have time for this.” The Prince visibly calmed himself with another breath, removing his goggles and attempting a friendly smile. “Hello, I am Prince Vegeta, and I need you to find Kakarot for me.”

Bulma sneered right back. “And why would I do that?”

Prince Vegeta gave her a wicked grin in return, and beckoned her and the guards to a circular mosaic in the middle of the throne room. With a hand-signal, levers and gears started turning, and the circle fell away down, running smoothly down like an elevator.

 

**Anachronism**

The room they were lowered into was something beyond Bulma’s wildest dreams. Some forms of consoles stood, placed on top of finely carved tables. Mounted on one walls were four great, luminant pictures. But not any sort of paintings Bulma knew; no, these pictures  _ moved _ .

On a wide bench, the big hairy Saiyan from before was seated, now sans goggles, his hand on a boy’s sleeping form. “Allow me to introduce you to your Saiyan Overlords,” Vegeta drawled, “This here Raditz. He’s Kakarot’s brother.” Bulma didn’t think she liked Raditz, or the leer he gave her, but she got no time to think it over, for Vegeta had marched right over to the sleeping boy and pulled him up by the hair. “And this is Cabba. Wake up Cabba.”

 

**Wild Wild West**

The boy was a small thing, and asked sleepily if it was his turn already. “That’s right.” Prince Vegeta quipped almost happily. “You’ve got to get back to work in thirty minutes. I was hoping Kakarot would take your spot, but  _ this girl her _ e helped him escape!”  

Before Bulma even got to defend that, Vegeta had turned to the moving pictures on the walls. “And there’s the rest of the gang. Nappa you met.” And he indicated the lower left picture. 

It didn't show the great bald man from before though. It showed something at least twenty times that size, a hulking hairy ape inside a steel room, pushing with all its might at an enormous steel cross-bar. After a moment, Bulma realized the creature was making progress, walking slowly. But the room and to position remained the same. Only the ground moved. The sandy desert ground. 

“Oh, I’m sorry. “ The Prince cut in snidely. “Did you think the city walked itself? Nappa just took over for Bardock, who assured me he was well enough for half a shift. But I bet he’s back in a hospital bed somewhere by now.

**Revolver**

“On camera one and two, you can see our girls. Caulifla and Kale. They’re both fifteen, but strong see? Camera four is Broli. That guy is a tank. But even a tank needs to eat and sleep.” At this point, Vegeta gestured again at Cabba. “The girls have been pulling a foot since they were twelve. Poor Cabba since he was eleven. All while that lowborn ingrate Kakarot has been sitting on his lazy ass, resting. -sorry Raditz.”

Raditz just shrugged, but Bulma took offence. “Goku has  _ not  _ been resting. He’s worked  _ plenty _ . And besides, I don’t  _ see _ you working. Or the King, he’s a Saiyan right? Don't see him either.”

She had not expected to find a hand grabbing her face. His palm felt too hot, like a loaded revolver to the face. “My father  _ worked _ himself to  _ death _ at a foot. Just so those kids wouldn't have to. But they are working now anyway, aren’t they? Have been for three years. You think I don't pull my weight? El Caminante walks on four feet. There’s eight Saiyans left, and one is sick.” He scoffed at her. “You will find Kakarot for me, and he’ll be number nine. Because I don't have the time. I got a shift in thirty minutes.” 

  
  
  



End file.
